South Dade Beats South Miami To Take Tournament Crown

South Dade beat South Miami 5-3 on Saturday in the final game of the Battle Down South Tournament.

“This tournament had six of the best teams in the county,” South Dade head coach John Burnside said.

The field included South Dade, South Miami, Ferguson, Palmetto, Southwest and Coral Gables.

Early in the game, both offenses started well. South Miami’s Armani Medina and Paul Proenza led off the game with two singles. Medina came in to score after an error by the South Dade second baseman. Steven Brizuela connected with a pitch and hit a deep fly ball into center field to drive in Proenza on the sacrifice fly for the South Miami Cobras.

The South Dade Buccaneers hitters did not disappoint in the first inning. David Lugo, who went 4-for-4 on the night, started the game with a double up the middle. Then the Buccaneers started to play small ball as Jadan Garcia laid a bunt single down the third-base line. Lugo scored after a balk was called on the South Miami starting pitcher. Coach Burnside would call another bunt from Brandyn Thomas that moved Garcia over to third base.

“Now with these new bats, I think you need to be able to do the little things like bunting,” Burnside said. “It’s something we have been working on in practice and we will continue to do it.”

Ryan Bogaards drove in Garcia on a single to left-center. The scoring in the inning continued on a two-run home run by Anthony Dowling to deep left-center field. The Buccaneers led by a score of 4-2 after one.

David Lugo got an RBI single in the second, bringing around Gilberto Gil to score for South Dade. South Miami’s pitcher Danny Garmendia settled in after the early runs and held the Buccaneers scoreless the rest of the game. He recorded five strike outs in his six innings of work.

South Miami was able to make the game a tighter in the fourth inning. Xavier Barriere hit a single into right field to get on base. Barriere scored on Marcus Cox’ RBI single up the middle, making it a 5-3.

South Dade’s starter Ruben Vega also had a good performance on the mound. He gave up three runs on four hits in his four innings of work. However, it was his reliever, freshman John Gonzalez, who shut down the Cobras. Gonzalez showed off his powerful arm as he struck out six batters in just three innings of work.

“We may need to take a better look at him,” coach Burnside said. “He has some good movement on the ball and had quite a few strikeouts.”

The pitchers took over the game after the first few innings as both teams were shutout the rest of the game. South Dade coach John Burnside was happy with his team’s performance against a good South Miami team.

“Tonight was nice. They have some good players on their team,” coach Burnside said. “Their shortstop (Carlos Garmendia) made a great play on defense, and their pitcher was good as well.”

South Dade is hoping that this good start to the season continues as they take on district opponent Southridge on Tuesday night.

(Note – we were not allowed to take photos of this game. Sorry!)

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